d&dproposal march2014

8/12/2019 D&DProposal March2014

1/15

WRITERS: Damon Heatlie, Damir Radonic & Angie Mills

PRODUCERS: Damir Radonic & Angie Mills

SCRIPT EDITOR: arima E!!endi !or t"e #ational $ilm & %ideo$ondation

WORI#' TIT(E: Do)n and Dirt*

TA'(I#E: +een Do)n so (ong don-t no) W"ic" Wa* is U./0

$ORMAT: $eatre $ilm !or Cinematic Release

'E#RE: 'rotes1e Drama

RU##I#' TIME: 23 Mintes

TAR'ET AUDIE#CE: Do)n and Dirt* is li4el* to a..eal to a discerning

and critical art adience 5 6ot" locall* and internationall*, moreli4el* a Ero.ean adience/ T"e !ilm is targeted at critical !esti7alrelease and rece.tion rat"er t"an !or a mass commercial mar4et/

WHAT I$ PREMISE:

What if a large sum of money suddenly falls into the hands of an

unloved patriarch who uses it to extend his tyrannical rule over his

poverty-stricken family driving them to plot his murder.

*What if a cynical and alienated (unloved) Xhosa patriarch acquires a

ig disaility payout! ut then refuses to share his wealth with his

desperately poor ut scheming family"

S8#OPSIS:

#he film is to e shot in $angerg township in $out %ay! transposed

into the fictional location of &oed %aai. 't takes the central story

line from the original!%rutti! porchi e attivi revolving action

around the patriarch in the figure of +oseph ,aena. #he story rings

out the daily struggle of a family as it attempts to survive poverty.

'ts central theme is deprivation.

,r. ,aena is a Xhosa (lack) man married to a coloured woman. $e lives

a lonely and isolated life from his family and deeply longs for love.

$e receives a sieale amount of money from insurance for the loss of

his eye on the o. /round him his family grows more resentful as he

daily hides the money. $is growing paranoia and power isolates him

even further until one day he falls into the arms of a stranger! the

mysterious 0smerelda. $e moves her into the family shack and all hell

reaks loose. #he family plots to kill ,aena y poisoning him and his

full fall is set into motion. #his small story told aout this small

family intends to ring out the roader issues at play in the life of


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the poor of outh /frica today.

AC'ROU#D TO THE PRO9ECT:

Do)n and Dirt* is inspired y the 'talian grotesque drama 1%rutti!

porchu e attivi! (2gly! 3irty and %ad). #he film was directed y0ttore cola and was released to critical acclaim in 4567.

1%rutti! porchi e attivi was a film ahead of its time. ,uch of the

social commentary expressed through dark commentary went unnoticed and

the film was commended for performance and cinematic daring rather than

the issues it raised! namely homelessness! poverty! environmental

degradation! consumerism! and uran settlements in the seventies gloal

economic crisis viewed through the prism of 'taly.

#his compelling film daringly took up satirical comment upon issues of

survival and poverty that are still relevant to contemporary concerns

around uran settlements. 1%rutti! porchi e attivi is unsurpassedin its relentless exploration of the nature of survival. %y looking at

the challenges of the poor through the lens of dis-identification

encouraging critique and analysis! the pathos is found in the humour!in

our humanness and the frailty of our interdependency.

#he most critical aspect of the original film is first its setting. 't

immediately uxtaposes economic disparities in one shot y the contrast

of a township against the ackdrop of a developing wealthy 8ome.

eemingly working with a found location to tackle real life issues of

survival there is a sensiility produced of the sheer hardness of daily

life for the poor. &eneral use of availale light and oservational

camera work was more familiar in documentary filmmaking than fiction.

#he aesthetic it provoked in 1%rutti! porchi e attivi underscored

the social themes of the film.

#he way that the doyen 9ino ,anfredi leads a mostly unknown cast into

such a realistic performance allows for authenticity to characters as

well as context and daily life. /lthough highly crafted as a film

there is a spontaneity rought aout y the situations which reveal

characters and allow the audience to identify with the 1raw and the

1authentic.

With all this complexity the story remains simple and powerful. #he

film ends with the only 1innocent character! the young girl! pregnant

condemned to live under these conditions of survival and cycle of

poverty.

We argue for a remake of 1%rutti! porchi e attivi on the asis that

it can illuminate real life conditions for the poor :; years later in a

place as far from 'taly as outh /frica.

T"e Sot" A!rican !ilm conceptualised y the producers is aimed atcritical and artistic rather than popular release. 13own and 3irty

relies < in oth genre and story < on the principles of exaggeration

and hyperole. #he grotesque is delierately emphasised in order to


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make a igger statement aout poverty and deprivation in a ape #own

informal settlement the fictional &oed %aai (ased on $angerg! ape

#own). =n the contrary! it is meant to unsettle viewers and make us

question our own complicity in the status quo that the film wishes to

depict. #he protagonist is likewise not the most amiale hero we will

come to meet.

'n the film < character takes precedence over plot. onceptually

speaking! the film is less concerned with an action-packed and

expositional (cause and effect) plot than with delving into how people

(characters in the film) are driven to extreme ehaviours ecause of

their dire conditions. 'n terms of elievaility then! resonance needs

to come from the characters and from watching the incredile lengths

people would go to in order to counter or cope with the deprivation in

their lives.

#he film is concerned with the idea of relative deprivation < that we

do not know who we are unless we compare ourselves with others.

%ecause &oed %aai (like $angerg) is a shantytown remarkaly located in

the heart of a luxurious and privileged neighourhood! its residents

are constantly reminded of ust how little they have. #he plush realestate surrounding &oed %aai is a ceaseless reminder of what the slum>s

residents aspire to ut will never achieve? a daily! almost

pornographic reminder of the lack and deprivation in &oed %aai. @iving

in an extremely poor slum surrounded y extreme wealth! is a recipe for

extreme ehaviour < and this is what we find in &oed %aai.

Contetall*S6;ectslocationPeo.le

MOTI%ATIO# $OR HA#'ER'MOTI%ATIO# $OR A CAST MADE UP O$ (AR'E(8 CAST COMMU#IT8 MEMERSMOTI%ATIO# $OR CO((A'E

Hang6erg Ca.e To)n as Setting !or 'oed aai8ecent news reports showed riots in a small community in ape #own!

$angerg. #his traditionally 1coloured community threw rocks and took

up arms in protest against the prospective demolition of their informalsettlement. #hey cited as part of their discontent the failing service

delivery y local and national government officials to their living

needs which in turn had forced a growth of the informal sector of the

township.

Omnes 7iae Romam dcnt.2rgent needs for shelter y new 1uran poor are giving outh /frican

cities new shape. 'nformal settlements (often referred to as squatter

camps or shanty towns) are dense settlements comprised of communities


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housed in self-constructed shelters under conditions of informal or

traditional land tenure. 'nformal settlements occur when the current

land administration and planning fails to address the needs of the

whole community. #hese areas are characteried y rapid! un-structured

and un-planned development. /s such they are characteried y a dense

proliferation of small! make-shift shelters uilt from diverse

materials! degradation of the local ecosystem and y severe social

prolems.

oloured ommunity

'n outh /frica! coloured communities came aout during the &roup /reas

/ct of 45A; when people were forcily moved to locations to e grouped

with their 1own. #his particular group was positioned etween lacks

and whites! as mixed race! to e less than white ut etter than lack.

#he ape coloured community evolved over :;; years from the colonial

1astards raised in the domestic quarters enslaved as manual

agricultural workers into modern day lieral economy driven specialied

manual workers. #hey were given limited skills and opportunities!

marginalied as cheap laour as fisherman! factory workers!

tradesmen... &eneral unemployment turned many to look for alternativemeans to earn their wages! including growing illegal activities. #he

communities have ecome criminalied ruled y crime lords who have a

semlance of power where they can define the rules and regulate the

lives of those dependent on them.

Social consciosness !ilms#oday a new stream of social consciousness films is currently in the

making. uch films are raising awareness aout the living conditions!

the socio-political and economic contexts within which poor people make

life and survive. #he success of socially conscious films with

international audiences shows a growing interest in the lives of the

underrepresented.

With the worldBs eye on outh /frica the film is poised to illuminate

real conditions for people on the ground. 't is a story that will have

gloal and local resonance and we elieve find audiences much like

those drawn to 1lumdog ,illionaire ('ndia) and 1ity of &od

(%rail). #he time for such a film aout outh /frica is now.

' wish ' could convey what /frica was like. ' have experienced nothing

like it. /frica has its own personality. ometimes it is a sad

personality! sometimes impenetrale! ut always unrepeatale. /frica

is dynamic. 't was aggressive! on the attack.

S8#OPSIS

E8 CHARACTERS

9ose." Ma6ena! (Xhosa! A6)! hails from the former #ranskei. / welder y


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trade! ,aena has een working as a oat mechanic at the harour for

the last two decades. $e lives with his coloured wife! 3oreen! and

largely informally-employed extended family in the coloured township of

&oed %aai! ape #own.

$is hoy is drinking and strolling around with his attered hound!

9;, a friend and confidant. / itter and cynical patriarch of asqualid compound of loosely connected shacks! ,aena! is at loggerheads

with his entire family.

'n his view +oe ,aena has een disadvantaged his whole lifeC deprived

of opportunity y the apartheid government! deprived of a home after

ecoming a migrant! deprived of his dreams to ecome a musician!

deprived of the new riches amassed y lacks and whites alike in the

1new outh /frica.

,ost fundamentally he has een deprived of the love and respect of his

family! even if his own itterness has played a large role in this.

#his sense of deprivation and worthlessness sits at the root of his

unhappiness and frustration with life. o when ,aena comes into money!

he refuses to share his money with his family and instead uses it todominate them.

,aenaBs low self-esteem causes him to compare himself to others around

him! and so the irony of the story - he needs his family to be poor

in order for him to be rich. $e proects his own sense of worthlessness

into his family.

,aena is oth cruel and generous. $e is shameless in his comments and

ehaviour. $e roundly auses his family and community! loing them

with whatever is convenient or availale. %ut underneath this fractious

facade ,aena is a roken romantic who long ago lost hope in life. $is

remaining loves are his eaten-up trumpet from his days gone y! his

dog +uu! and his youngest daughter! Drincess.

Doreen Ma6ena! (oloured! A:) is ,aena>s wife of thirty odd years. /lifetime of hardship and trying to keep things together in the face of

poverty has left her disillusioned with life and her marriage. he

lost her o! along with a numer of women! when the fish factory where

she was employed closed down.

3oreen is a survivor and pragmatist. he is the family organiser! the

realist!the one who plans and commands. he cares aout her home which

she tries to keep together in the face of entropy.

he spends much of her time in conflict with her husand! although once

upon a time he serenaded her with a trumpet.

$er disappointment in life is pushed into revengeful rage when ,aena

humiliates her y declaring his love for 0smeralda.

Princess Ma6ena (oloured! 47) is the figure of udding possiility inthe ,aena family. he is at the crossroads etween girlhood and

adulthood. he acts as the liminal figure in the story? one with a

prospective future.


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Esmeralda (White! E5). /n overweight FentertainerB from 9amiia whodrifts into the nocturnal sheeen world of &oed %aai! she is ,aenaBs

lind spot. heBs not very right and says very little. $is infatuation

with her is a vanity proect! a product of his low self-esteem. While

he feels valued as a man! it is purely his money that attracts her.

#his is clear to everyone except him.

ECUTI%E PRODUCER ? Donald / Ran7ad

/cclaimed 0xecutive Droducer 3onald 8anvaud of /nglo-'talian origin and

with a Hrench name has amongst a stellar list of films produced

1Harewell my oncuine! 1/ onstant &ardener and 1ity of &od. 't is

upon this rich experience of working in /frica! /sia and @atin /merica

that 13own and 3irty can e realised oth through financial and actual

production support. Iey to the remake of 13own and 3irty is his

experience working in the favelas of 8ioJ %rail with a cast of non-

actors to make 1ity of &od a film that went on to win an =scar as

well as widespread international distrution. Hor outh /frican

audiences! this film from the early 455;s still resonates as expressive

of similar conditions on the ground.

E>ECUTI%E PRODUCER 5 Damir Radonic

3amir 8adonic immigrated to outh /frica from former Kugoslavia in the

early 455;s. $e enters the film usiness from a ackground of

architecture! proect management and uran design. $is keen interest in

outh /frican uran development and issues around housing rought him

into a position to understand film as the right medium to create

social awareness around those topics. $omelessness and informal

settlements are the core of his interest and possiility of adaptation

for 13own L 3irty came as clear opportunity to tackle these concepts

as gloal rather than local phenomena. /s 0xecutive Droducer and


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3irector he has recently realied his first feature film 1#aka #aka-

taM! a light hearted outh /frican soccer comedy. 3amir will act as

oth 0xecutive and reative Droducer on 13own and 3irty.

DIRECTOR @ WRITER 5 Angie Mills

/ngie ,ills earned her degree in /nthropology! post-colonial theory and

film studies at the tate 2niversity of 9ew Kork. usequent to that

she has een engaged in a numer of capacities in the outh /frican

film and television industry over the past 4A years including as a

commissioning editor at the /% and director on the local drama series

1'sidingo. /s script developer she has worked on the international

feature films 1,ax and ,ona and 1#he %ird anBt Hly. 'n G;;N /ngie

was invited to participate in the annes film festival as a panelist

alongside other /frican women filmmakers. he is also producer on the

feature film 1#aka #aka-ta. /ngie is the appointed writerJ director

on 13own and 3irty.

CAST

CREW

TREATME#T

+Ultimatel*, an* sign or )ord is ssce.ti6le to 6eing con7erted intosomet"ing else, e7en into its o..osite/0tatements on /ppropriation

(G;;5),ichalis Dichler

3eprivation is a multidimensional concept. 'n the sphere of economics!

deprivation manifests itself as poverty? in politics! as

marginaliation? in social relations! as discrimination? in culture! as

rootlessness? in ecology! as vulneraility. #he different forms of

deprivation reinforce one another =ften the same household! the same

region! the same country is the victim of all these forms of

deprivation. %ecause the poor are often cut off from the decisionmaking

process of their communities! discriminated against y other stations

in society! cut off from aiding roots in the community! and relegated

to occupy environmentally unsafe areas of societal space! the solutions

to their dilemma require a multifaceted approach ased on anunderstanding of roader deprivation.


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#he director will take as his departure point for the aesthetics of the

film the work of collageJcompositing. #he screen will e split into

three frames! the main frame! the side ar and the top ar.

Main $rame: #he film opens! early morning! hae of smoke from fires!

with a young girl carrying a ucket on her head meandering in a wide

locked off shot down a dusty road towards a water point. he walks

etween corroded and rightly coloured shacks and comes out into a

1clearing. 'n her path people criss-cross on their way to work! doing

early morning tasks! students off to school! women selling mealies on

the side of the road calling out! chickens clucking peck at the hard

ground! taxis lare their latest kwaito hits(/ popular music)! oys

cat call and girls walk y! the girl continues on her path undeterred.

#he whole swirl of life happens against a collage ackdrop of shacks

stacked against one another! leaning into one another! some old and

leaking! others rightly painted! others decorated eyond elief! a few

with flowers growing on a small patch of land! a lone tree ends

outside a lime green metal wall! cloth sack hangs over roofs to protect

the inside of the homes from rain and rocks hold the sacks down. ut

to mid shot of a group of women! gossiping! discussing their gamling

of the hinese numers game! as they fill uckets and passing the

latest news aout what is happening in the neighorhood. #he young


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girl arrives to collect her daily supply.

Side ar: / close up of dirty water from a polluted river swirls on

the side of the main frame! some plastic ottles and a cup floats y.

To. ar: / corroded roof! filled with holes! leaks.

ollageJcompositing is visile in a numer of forms that are distinctly

outh /frican and township ased. #he way the dwellings take their

shape through the notion of availaleJfound elements rather than using

1purpose made uilding locks.

outh /frican 1hacks are adopted! orrowed! usually recycled of man-

made visual culture. #he appropriation of consumer markers and rands

towards creating intimate spaces that hold dignity and ownership is a

powerful dialectic around power relations etween the haves and have

nots. =ur film intends to draw on these aesthetics and further to

foreground the recycled nature of the ways in which people reuse

materials towards creating newness! contemporary life! and

experientiality.

1#he assemlages do not distinguish primarily etween which parts are

supposed to e original and which have een found and gathered from

someplace else? assemlages are interested in what works! what has

social effects.O/ssemlage #heory and ocial omplexity (G;;7) ,anuel

3e @anda


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#hese uran settlements marked y different forms of transport where

children run through streets pushing old tires! and rand new upmarket

cars can e glimpsed as well as rows of taxis lining roads ready to

pick up their customers! who range from domestic workers! day

laourers! school kids! hawkers! who all shuttle their way daily into

the roader nexus that also makes their lives.

#he mixture of rural meeting uran is evident in these very

uxtapositions and offers ways in which there can e new readings of

migration. #hese migrations speak to corridors of flux where the rural

and modern intermix as do itinerant laourers who move in and out

against those more 1settled populations! and immigrants mainly from

other parts of /frica who also settle on the peripheries creating their

own makeshift shelters.


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1#he migration from rural to uran areas has added interesting and

imaginative interpretations to the creative process and transformed

these mere physical dwelling places! as humle as they seem! into

spiritual aodes. #here is no fear of contradiction in the rural-

meets-uran aesthetic that simultaneously and unapologetically

uxtaposes cow horns sourced from ritual slaughter in honour of

ancestors! hanging over the doorpost against ,adonna-and-child icons

reverently covered in protective clear plastic paper hanging on the

Fliving roomB wall. Phack hic! raig Hraser! G;;GQ

ART DIRECTIO# :

+t"ere is as mc" +n.redicta6le originalit*0in 1oting, imitating,

trans.osing, and ec"oing, as t"ere is in in7enting/0 tatements on

/ppropriation (G;;5) ,ichalis Dichler


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#he ways in which people decorate the exteriors and interiors of their

homes creating wallpaper and decoration through packaging! laels!

using unconventional colour and placing old oects alongside new!

traditional and modern all displaying innovative ways of uxtaposing

oects as well images towards eautifying shacks! is a key visual

reference evident in the landscape of township life.

1@iving interior walls with randed FwallpaperB < surplus packaging for

popular outh /frican products such as @ucky tar (pilchards)! %ull

%rand (corned eef)! @ion matches! unlight soap! olgate! Dalmolivesoap and Ioo aked eans < is a popular dRcor scheme! initially

employed of necessity (functional for filling holes in the walls and

covering the unsightly lack of uniformity in the uilding materials)!

they are more ecoming a design feature in themselves. Phack hic!

raig Hraser! G;;G

,anuel 3e @anda>s latest ook!A #e) P"iloso."* o! Societ*: Assem6lageT"eor* and Social Com.leit*! starts from the level of individual!personal relations and continues gradually all the way to the level of

nation state and eyond. /ll phenomena are defined as emerging from

d*namic s*stems! which are in constant flux.#hrough defining the contemporary world as an entity of extreme

complexity! ,anuel 3e @anda simultaneously criticies the dominant

postmodernist linguistic analysis in social science. #his new approach

to social ontology should instead assert the autonomous nature of

social entities! taking &illes 3eleue>s t"eor* o! assem6lages !or its

main !rame)or4/ T"e com.onents in t"e assem6lages are de!ined 6* t"eir

material dimension and territorialiing and deterritorialiing ais/


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T"e* are "istoricall* contingent, "eterogeneos and sel!?s6sistent,

gi7ing t"e .ossi6ilit* to ta4e one assem6lage and insert it into

anot"er )it"ot destro*ing its identit*/ T"e main c"aracteristics o!

t"e relations"i. 6et)een an assem6lage and its com.onents are

com.leit* and non?linearit*,and ,anuel 3e @anda elieves that the

task of social science is to analye them as such.

CI#EMATO'RAPH8:

Hrom a visual point of view our film intends to draw on

collageJcompositing in several waysC #o allow the frame to fill in

through collage and also to split the screen towards photomontage to

remark on the different issues and themes at play in the story i.e.

gender! environmentalism etc. &iven the layered nature of social

integration! to the layered context which people live and the tensions

of survival in which they find themselves! down to the very layered

nature of the shack in which they live! collageJcompositing speaks to

all these levels. #he frame split into three will foreground on one

hand the main drama of the story! provide another suplot J social

comment through a second 1side ar frame on the environment and again

allow for a third frame which sits on top to hold together the other

two.

#o achieve such 1Dhotomontage we will shoot three different sceneswith locked cameras clearly understanding where are the positions of

the splitJdivision lines. cene will vary in shot sies and dynamics.

Hinal composition will happen in postproduction.

In t"is model, t"e role o! intertetalit* is recognied as central to

t"e com.osition o! Bne)B material/

CO(OUR A#D (I'HTI#':


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&rayness of township galvanied roofs and walls contrasts with lue sky

and patches of tin metal walls painted in primary colours. 8ichness of

textures and asic rectangular shapes collaged next to one another

occasionally patched with part of a recogniale rand advertising

oard reclaims new life as a shack structural element. hapes are

rather camouflaged hiding edges and orders and appear as an organic

manmade faric stretched in the infinity of the ape #own landscape.

#he need for set design will e minimal as the township gives endless

possiilities to find perfect exterior and interior locations. @ocation

scouting will e done in accordance with the notion to shoot using

availale light. 2se of natural light is imperative and additional

provisions will e made only for few night and interior shoots. #he use

of natural life is a gain towards capturing lived life.

SOU#D:

#he cacophony of children! fires crackling! horns lowing! shouts! a

gun goes off! chickens cluck! vuvuelas intermittently low! pots

clanging! the latest hits from the radio! water gushing from a waterpoint! aies crying < in sum the full experiential sound of lived life

will fill the film. We will take as much naturalJavailale sounds as

possile and through the diagetic forge meaningful relationships

etween the images.

MUSIC:

8emix of availale music intercultural and orderlessJuncontained

within scene! free to flow from the street into the interior and often

used as noise depicting 1sound pollution as another amient element of

township living.

(OCATIO#:

We currently have a transcript and character exploration of the ,aena

family set in a hypothetical Western ape #ownship (please see


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synopsis).

We have chosen $angerg! which is such a community as the context and

suect for the remake of 1%rutti! porchi e attivi. et in the

spectacular ay of $out %ay (part of ape #own ,etropolis)! this

township and informal settlement stands in stark contrast to the rich

developments across the way. 'n the 457;s people were forcily

removed from agricultural lands which although ancestral they had no

land rights to! and they were displaced onto a patch of land that sits

under the famous landmark of the 1entinel which marks every tourist

postcard of $outay. 'nvisile on the post cards! this small coloured

community makes its living primarily off the sea through fishing and in

illegal activities like aalone poaching and the drug industry that

moves through surrounding waters linked to triads and gloal trade.

$angerg is in effect a corridor of flux? transportation! migrant

laour! dwellings that go up over night! people moving in and out !

make this an 1ideal space in which to explore intercultural dynamics!

survival! life! flux! poverty! hardship! transactional life and

transcendence.

We would like to flesh out more contextually the issues of

environmentalism! poverty! homelessness and xenophoia that effect thestory of the ,aena family. We need to engage in a fair amount of

qualitative research to develop the script over a numer of rewrites to

its fullest potential.

Do)n & Dirt* Prodction Sc"edle 3 @ 3F Time

De7elo.ment ? end ,ay G;4:

Pre.rodction ? +une < eptemer G;4:

Prodction ? =ctoer G;4:

Post.rodction ? 9ovemer G;4: - ,arch G;4A

Mar4eting@distri6tion ? ,ay G;4A

d&dproposal march2014

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